Chapter 4 Flashcards
What is an attitude?
Attitudes are considered major determinants of behavior
People tend to buy products they consider attractive or useful and avoid buying
products they think of as unattractive or useless
Researchers have not agreed on a definition
The way we conceptualize attitudes is important for understanding advertising
Defining Attitude
What social psychologists agree on about attitudes:
o Attitudes are evaluative responses
o Attitudes are directed towards some attitude object
o Attitudes derive from, or are based on, three classes of information
- Cognitive
- Affective/emotional
- Behavioral
People’s attitudes reflect the way they evaluate the world around them, their likes
and dislikes
Any discriminable aspect of our physical or social environment can become an attitude
object
Attitudes can derive from three general classes of information or experiences:
o Cognitive information about the attributes that characterize the object
o Affective or emotional reactions evoked by the attitude object
o Behavioral information
Bem’s self-perception theory states that people rarely have direct, privileged
information about their attitudes and therefore often have to infer them from their
own behavior
Two major points of contention:
o Whether attitudes should be defined as a predisposition to evaluate an
attitude object in a particular way or as the evaluative response itself
o Whether attitudes are stable or context dependent
Attitude: A psychological tendency that is expressed by evaluating a particular entity
with some degree of favor or disfavor.
o Most influential definition by Eagly and Chaiken
o Three types of evaluative responses:
- Cognitive
- Affective
- behavioral
attitudes:
o Attitudes are evaluative responses
o Attitudes are directed towards some attitude object
o Attitudes derive from, or are based on, three classes of information
Cognitive
Affective/emotional
Behavioral
Attitudes can derive from three general classes of information or experiences:
o Cognitive information about the attributes that characterize the object
o Affective or emotional reactions evoked by the attitude object
o Behavioral information
Two major points of contention on attitude
o Whether attitudes should be defined as a predisposition to evaluate an
attitude object in a particular way or as the evaluative response itself
o Whether attitudes are stable or context dependent
Attitude:
A psychological tendency that is expressed by evaluating a particular entity
with some degree of favor or disfavor.
o Most influential definition by Eagly and Chaiken
o Three types of evaluative responses:
Cognitive
Affective
behavioral
Implicit attitudes
Evaluations of which the individual is typically not aware and that
influence reactions or actions over which the individual has little or no control.
Explicit attitudes
Evaluations of which the individual is consciously aware and that can
be expressed using self-report measures.
o Semantic differential scales (bipolar adjective scales)
o Likert scales
Affective priming method
Individuals are presented on each trial with a prime.
Immediately afterwards they are presented with positive or negative adjectives and are
asked to decide as fast as possible whether the adjective was positive or negative. The
time it takes people to make this judgement constitutes the dependent measure.
o The basic assumption is that the attitude prime automatically activates an
evaluative response and that this response will either facilitate or inhibit the
evaluative response to the next stimulus
Depends on whether prime and target are evaluatively (dis)similar
o Consistency of findings with the researchers’ a priori assumptions does not
constitute scientific evidence
Implicit Association Test (IAT)
The procedure assesses the strength of an association
between two concepts with positive and negative evaluations. The response latencies
are derived from the participants’ use of two response keys, which have been assigned
a dual meaning.
o Assessing stereotypical or otherwise biased attitudes
Theory of dual attitudes:
Persuasive advocacies (such as advertising) or novel
experiences might often result in the creation of a novel, second attitude
without replacing the old one. Dual attitudes are different evaluations of the
same attitude object, one on an automatic, implicit level, and one on a
controlled, explicit level.
Implicit and explicit attitudes: challenging the unity of the attitude concept
Implicit attitudes: Evaluations of which the individual is typically not aware and that
influence reactions or actions over which the individual has little or no control.
Explicit attitudes: Evaluations of which the individual is consciously aware and that can
be expressed using self-report measures.
o Semantic differential scales (bipolar adjective scales)
o Likert scales
Affective priming method: Individuals are presented on each trial with a prime.
Immediately afterwards they are presented with positive or negative adjectives and are
asked to decide as fast as possible whether the adjective was positive or negative. The
time it takes people to make this judgement constitutes the dependent measure.
o The basic assumption is that the attitude prime automatically activates an
evaluative response and that this response will either facilitate or inhibit the
evaluative response to the next stimulus
Depends on whether prime and target are evaluatively (dis)similar
o Consistency of findings with the researchers’ a priori assumptions does not
constitute scientific evidence
On socially sensitive topics, such as prejudice, measures on intrinsic attitudes are likely
to correlate with attitudinally relevant behaviors over which individuals have little
control, but are less likely to be predictive to evaluative responses that are
controllable
Implicit Association Test (IAT): The procedure assesses the strength of an association
between two concepts with positive and negative evaluations. The response latencies
are derived from the participants’ use of two response keys, which have been assigned
a dual meaning.
o Assessing stereotypical or otherwise biased attitudes
Great deal of evidence that for socially sensitive issues such as prejudice, the
association between explicit and implicit measures iss very low
The discordance between implicit and explicit measures of attitude challenges our
conception of attitude as a unitary concept
o Theory of dual attitudes: Persuasive advocacies (such as advertising) or novel
experiences might often result in the creation of a novel, second attitude
without replacing the old one. Dual attitudes are different evaluations of the
same attitude object, one on an automatic, implicit level, and one on a
controlled, explicit level.
o The attitude individuals are likely to endorse at any given time will depend on
whether they have the cognitive capacity to retrieve the explicit attitude, while
suppressing the old, implicit attitude
Are attitudes stable or context dependent?
File-drawer model: The perspective that attitudes are learned structures that reside in
LTM and are activated upon encountering the attitude object.
This view has been challenged by evidence that suggests that attitudes may be much
less enduring and table than assumed
Attitudes-as-constructions perspective: Attitudes fluctuate over time and appear to
depend on what people happen to be thinking about at any given moment.
There is empirical support for both stability and malleability of attitudes
Attitudes can change when people analyze their reasons for holding them
Some theorists argue that even if attitudinal judgements are made online each time
we encounter the attitude object, attitudes should remain stable to the extent that at
each point in time respondents draw on similar sources of information
Attitudes can eb places on a continuum of attitude strength
o Through heavy advertising, initially unfamiliar brans can become household
names that are highly accessible in people’s mind
o When people are asked to evaluate novel and unfamiliar stimuli, they form
their attitude online
o When they are asked to evaluate a familiar object, they can rely on their
knowledge that they have formed over time
File-drawer model:
The perspective that attitudes are learned structures that reside in
LTM and are activated upon encountering the attitude object
Attitudes-as-constructions perspective:
Attitudes fluctuate over time and appear to
depend on what people happen to be thinking about at any given moment.
Implications for the definition of attitude concept
Both the discrepancy often observed between implicit and explicit attitudes, and the
context dependence of attitudes are difficult to reconcile with the assumption that
these different evaluative responses are the expression of an underlying tendency
Attitudes: The categorization of a stimulus object along an evaluative dimension.
o Zanna & Rempel
o More consistent with the evidence
Zanna & Rempel: Attitude:
The categorization of a stimulus object along an evaluative dimension.
o Zanna & Rempel
o More consistent with the evidence
Attitude strength
Attitude strength: Some attitudes exert a powerful impact on thinking and on
behavior, whereas others have little or no effect.
Stronger attitudes:
o Higher stability over time
o Greater impact on behavior
o Greater influence on information processing
o Greater resistance to persuasion
Attitude strength
Some attitudes exert a powerful impact on thinking and on
behavior, whereas others have little or no effect.
Accessibility
Cognitive accessibility of an attitude: How easily or quickly an attitude can be retrieved
from memory.
o The speed of retrieval indicates the strength of the association between the
representation of the attitude object and the evaluation
Brand awareness: The ease with which consumers can recall or recognize the brand
and thus also retrieve the beliefs associated with that brand.
Measured by measuring response time
Attitude accessibility is negatively related to ambivalence
Highly accessible attitudes have been found to be more predictive of behavior than
attitudes of low accessibility
Accessibility moderates the attitude-behavior relationship
Highly accessible attitudes are more resistant to social influence
Cognitive accessibility of an attitude:
How easily or quickly an attitude can be retrieved
from memory.
o The speed of retrieval indicates the strength of the association between the
representation of the attitude object and the evaluation
Brand awareness:
The ease with which consumers can recall or recognize the brand
and thus also retrieve the beliefs associated with that brand.
Attitude importance
Attitudes towards issues that are important to the individuals are more strongly held
than attitudes towards unimportant issues
Determinants of attitude importance:
o The relevance of the attitude to cherished values of the individual
o Relevance to self-interest
o The perceived relevance of an issue for the interests of important reference
groups
Determinants of attitude importance:
o The relevance of the attitude to cherished values of the individual
o Relevance to self-interest
o The perceived relevance of an issue for the interests of important reference
groups
Attitude knowledge
Knowledge often accumulates simply as the result of exposure to information about
an object
Knowledge about an attitude object is only moderately positively related to its
importance
Attitude-relevant knowledge is associated with both attitude importance and media
use
Individuals with a high level of knowledge about an issue should be better able to
evaluate the validity of arguments about that issue than individuals with little
knowledge
o Quality of arguments has a greater impact on attitudes of more knowledgeable
individuals
Attitude certainty
Attitude certainty: The confidence individuals have in the validity or correctness of their
own attitude.
People are typically more certain of their extreme rather than their neutral attitudes
It is possible to hold even a neutral attitude with a high degree of certainty
Attitude certainty is moderately positively corrected with importance
People are more certain of attitudes that derive from their personal experience, that
come to mind easily, and for which they perceive a high degree of consensus
Attitudes held with greater certainty are more resistant to change and more
predictive of behavior
Attitude certainty:
The confidence individuals have in the validity or correctness of their
own attitude.
Attitudinal ambivalence:
A state in which an individual gives an attitude object
equivalently strong positive or negative evaluation
Ambivalence
Attitudinal ambivalence: A state in which an individual gives an attitude object
equivalently strong positive or negative evaluation.
The two-dimensional perspective of attitudes assumes that for many attitudes,
positive and negative evaluations, rather than being the endpoints of a continuum
that ranges from positive to negative, are stored in memory on two separate
dimensions, one ranging from neutral to positive and another from neutral to negative
Two strategies for assessing ambivalence:
o Measuring it as an experienced state
o Calculating it from evaluations as structural ambivalence
The two measures overlap but also reflect different aspects of ambivalence
If one assumes that individuals have a need to be consistent in their evaluation of an
attitude object, the two types of ambivalence should have different consequences for
information search and processing
o Unless there is some need to integrate the information into an overall
evaluation, experienced ambivalence may not motivate information search
o Experienced ambivalence should only motivate individuals to search for further
information if they expect that additional information would help them to
resolve this inconsistency
Attitudinal ambivalence has been found to be related to several attributes
characteristic of attitude strength
o Greater structural ambivalence → less cogniAvely accessible
o Ambivalent attitudes less stable than non-ambivalent attitudes
Ambivalent attitudes are less predictive of behavioral intentions and behavior
Ambivalent attitudes are less resistant to social influence
Ambivalence has been found to be positively related to processing motivation
According to dual process theories of attitude change, attitudes that are formed on
the basis of elaborate processing are more predictive of behavior than are attitudes
based on superficial processing
o Since it is more difficult to integrate inconsistent than consistent information,
one would expect that participants who were presented with evaluatively
inconsistent information would have to engage in deeper processing to form
an overall evaluation
o Attitudes formed from evaluatively inconsistent information should thus be
more predictive of behavior than attitudes that were based on consistent
information
Evaluative-cognitive consistency
Evaluative-cognitive consistency: The consistency between people’s attitudes towards
an attitude object and the evaluative implications of their beliefs about the object.
Evaluative-cognitive consistency and attitudinal ambivalence should be considered
distinct constructs
Evaluative-cognitive consistency is an aspect of attitude strength
o Evaluatively-cognitively consistent attitudes have been found to be more
stable than inconsistent attitudes
Evaluative-cognitive consistency:
The consistency between people’s attitudes towards
an attitude object and the evaluative implications of their beliefs about the object.
Stereotypes
Beliefs about the attributes of members of an outgroup
Brand image
The beliefs, feelings, and evaluations triggered by a brand name.
o Strongly influenced by advertising
Brand equity:
The value added to a product by a brand name.
Price-quality heuristic:
The expectancy that “if expensive then good”, and conversely,
“if inexpensive then bad”.
o Moderators:
Information load
Presentation format and need for cognitive closure
Desire to arrive at an opinion and avoid confusion, ambiguity, and
indecision
o Consumers who got a product at a discount derived less actual benefit from
the product than consumers who had paid the regular price
Consumer expectations mediate the effect
Attitudes based on direct experience versus memory
Direct experience results in more information about the attitude object than indirect
experience
Attitudes based on direct experience are held with greater confidence, are more
stable over time, and are more accessible in memory than attitudes that derive from
indirect experience
Attitudes based on direct experience are more predictive of future behavior
The more the expectations about an activity prove to be consistent with the actual
experience, the better the attitude will predict actual behavior
Greater attitude accessibility and greater stability are independently responsible for
the fact that experience-based attitudes are better predictors of behavior than
attitudes that are based on indirect experience
Importance of marketing tools to promote direct experience n addition to classic
advertising
The predictive validity of experience-based attitudes will depend on the similarity
between the context in which the experience is gained and hat in which the actual
behavior is performed
Attitudes based on direct experience are better predictors of behavior only when the
motivational orientation during the experience is consistent with the motivational
orientation during the later activity
Another factor that determines the impact of direct as compared to indirect
experience is expertise and trustworthiness of the source of the information
o People tend to distrust the information they received through mass media
advertising
Using heuristics to form attitudes towards products
Stereotypes: Beliefs about the attributes of members of an outgroup.
Consumers are particularly likely to use heuristics to form an attitude towards a
product, when product quality is difficult or ambiguous to ascertain
Brand image: The beliefs, feelings, and evaluations triggered by a brand name.
o Strongly influenced by advertising
Brand equity: The value added to a product by a brand name.
Information about country of origin of a product is another heuristic people use in
judging products
o Particularly important for food
Consumers tend to believe that ethnic food products are likely to be
better if they come from the country form which the food originated
Price-quality heuristic: The expectancy that “if expensive then good”, and conversely,
“if inexpensive then bad”.
o Moderators:
Information load
Presentation format and need for cognitive closure
Desire to arrive at an opinion and avoid confusion, ambiguity, and
indecision
o Consumers who got a product at a discount derived less actual benefit from
the product than consumers who had paid the regular price
Consumer expectations mediate the effect
Service customers tend to infer higher quality of services when duration increases,
especially in relation to price
Overreliance on heuristics can lead to a blocking effect, where consumers tend to
actively ignore other, sometimes more diagnostic, types of evidence indicative of
product quality
The formation of evaluative responses based on affective or emotional experience
Mere exposure – initially neutral stimuli can acquire positive valence through
repeated exposure
Classical or evaluative conditioning – initially neutral stimuli can acquire
positive/negative valence through association with events that already have positive
or negative valence
Affect-as-information – individuals may use the affect evoked by the stimulus or the
stimulus context as information about this object
Mere exposure
Advertising “wear-in”: The observation that an advertisement’s impact only increases
after an “incubation period” of one or several initial exposures where effects are
absent or minimal.
Mere exposure effects
o Exposure-attitude relationship is a robust and reliable phenomenon
o The effect is stronger with a longer period of delay between exposure and
attitude measure
o Stimulus recognition is not necessary for the exposure effect to occur
o Exposure effect is stronger when stimuli are presented subliminally rather than
supraliminally
o The effect levels off after 10-20 exposures
Exposure effects can be used for the advertising of new brands
Mere exposure effects on behavior
Frequency of exposure increases perceptual fluency, the ease with which information
is processed
o Repeated exposure to a stimulus results in a representation of that stimulus in
memory
o When the stimulus is encountered again, this representation will make it easier
to encode and process the stimulus
The hedonic fluency model assumes that the increased ease of processing is
experienced as pleasant and that this positive affect will be used as information in the
evaluation of the stimulus
Advertising “wear-in”:
The observation that an advertisement’s impact only increases
after an “incubation period” of one or several initial exposures where effects are
absent or minimal.
Classical and evaluative conditioning
Classical conditioning: A neutral stimulus that is initially incapable of eliciting a
particular response gradually acquires the ability to do so through repeated
association with a stimulus that already evokes this response.
Widely used in advertising, where pictures of supermodels, beautiful scenes engaging
music are typically used as unconditioned stimuli
Contingency awareness is the most important moderator
o Effects were much stronger with participants who were aware of the
contingency between CS and US than for participants who were not aware
Repeated presentation of the CS without the US reduces or even extinguishes the
conditioning effect
Evaluative conditioning differs from Pavlovian conditioning
Evaluative conditioning effects can result from several different processes
o Misattribution
o Some evaluative conditioning procedures might encourage the formation of an
association between a brand name and the affect inducing concepts
If the brand is repeatedly paired with the same positively values
stimulus (US), a strong link between the brand and the US will be
forged and exposure to the brand will activate the representation of
the US in memory
Two limitations of this research:
o Only tested whether evaluative conditioning influences explicit attitudes
o Fictitious or unknown brand names
Evaluative conditioning influences explicit and implicit attitudes
The available evidence suggests that evaluative conditioning does not affect explicit
attitudes for towards familiar brands for which consumers hold strong attitudes
Even individuals who have no strong preference for either brand are likely to have
formed a set of beliefs about the attributes about these brands
Fishbein and Ajzen suggest that instead of a mere transfer of affect due to the CS-US
pairing, meaning is being transferred and beliefs are being changed; this change in
belief should then result in a change in attitudes towards the CS
Three different pathways through which evaluative conditioning can change brand
attitudes:
1. The positive affect or mood elicited by the US will rub off on the advertised
product
2. Repeated pairing of the brand name with a US; indirect positive association
3. The repeated US-CS pairing can result in a transfer of meaning with attributes
attributed to the US being transferred to the CS
None of these processes involves signal learning
Classical conditioning
A neutral stimulus that is initially incapable of eliciting a
particular response gradually acquires the ability to do so through repeated
association with a stimulus that already evokes this response.
Three different pathways through which evaluative conditioning can change brand
attitudes:
Fishbein and Ajzen suggest that instead of a mere transfer of affect due to the CS-US
pairing, meaning is being transferred and beliefs are being changed; this change in
belief should then result in a change in attitudes towards the CS
Three different pathways through which evaluative conditioning can change brand
attitudes:
1. The positive affect or mood elicited by the US will rub off on the advertised
product
2. Repeated pairing of the brand name with a US; indirect positive association
3. The repeated US-CS pairing can result in a transfer of meaning with attributes
attributed to the US being transferred to the CS
Affect-as-information
Affect-as-information hypothesis: Feelings may sometimes influence evaluations
through feeling-based inferences rather than through repeated association with the
stimulus.
Individuals infer their attitude from their present mood state
This misattribution should disappear when people are given reason to discount their
mood state as information about the
attitude object
Shop owners use strategies to improve the mood of their customers
Context effect occur mainly when feelings towards the target are regarded as relevant
for its evaluation
o Is the consumer behavior consummatory or instrumental?
Consummatory motivation is influenced more by affect
Affect-as-information hypothesis
Feelings may sometimes influence evaluations
through feeling-based inferences rather than through repeated association with the
stimulus.
The formation of evaluations based on behavioral information
Bem’s self-perception theory argues that when people had to report their own
attitude, but had little information about what their attitude might be, they tended to
assume that their attitude was consistent with their own recent behavior towards the
attitude object
Moderating role of attitude strength
Participants who had been reinforced in the positive direction ended up showing a
more positive attitude towards the issue than those reinforced in the negative
direction
Bem’s self-perception theory argues tha
when people had to report their own
attitude, but had little information about what their attitude might be, they tended to
assume that their attitude was consistent with their own recent behavior towards the
attitude object
Attitude structure:
The way the different types of information are integrated into an
overall evaluation.
Expectancy-value models
Expectancy-value models: These models conceptualize beliefs as the sum of the
expected values attributed to the attitude object. Thus, beliefs have two components,
namely and expectancy component and a value component.
o The expectancy component reflects the individual’s confidence that the
attitude object possesses the attributes they associate with it
Our level of confidence in attributing the attributes would depend on
our level of information
o The value component reflects the value we attach to the attributes
Attitudes can be predicted by multiplying the valuation of each attribute with the
subjective probability with which it is perceived as linked to the object
o = ∑ ×
In Rosenberg’s model, people’s attitudes towards some attitude object is a function of
the extent to which they perceive the attitude object as a means to the attainment of
important values or goals
o Attitudes as a function of the perceived instrumentality of the attitude objects
in reaching a goal and the value that they attach to that goal
Fishbein’s model: = ∑
o Ao is the attitude toward the object, action, or event o
o bi is the belief i about o
o ei is the evaluation of the attribute i
o n is the number of salient attributes
In Rosenberg’s model,
people’s attitudes towards some attitude object is a function of
the extent to which they perceive the attitude object as a means to the attainment of
important values or goals
o Attitudes as a function of the perceived instrumentality of the attitude objects
in reaching a goal and the value that they attach to that goal
Fishbein’s model:
= ∑
o Ao is the attitude toward the object, action, or event o
o bi is the belief i about o
o ei is the evaluation of the attribute i
o n is the number of salient attributes
Are beliefs the cause of attitudes?
Fishbein’s model assumes that people’s attitudes towards a brand are completely
determined by the information they possess about the product attributes or, more
specifically, the beliefs that are salient at the time they express their attitude
Rosenberg’s model makes that assumption that individuals try to achieve consistency
between their evaluations and their beliefs
o Chancing people’s evaluation of the attitude object should result in changes in
their beliefs about the object
o Empirical evidence
Although attitudes can be based on three classes of information, not every attitude is
likely to have strong cognitive, affective, and behavioral components
Fishbein’s model assumes that
people’s attitudes towards a brand are completely
determined by the information they possess about the product attributes or, more
specifically, the beliefs that are salient at the time they express their attitude
Rosenberg’s model makes that assumption that
individuals try to achieve consistency
between their evaluations and their beliefs
o Chancing people’s evaluation of the attitude object should result in changes in
their beliefs about the object
o Empirical evidence
Attitudes towards the advertisement and the dual mediation hypothesis
Dual mediation hypothesis: The attitude towards the advertisements influences brand
attitudes through two pathways, namely indirectly via brand cognitions, and directly
via evaluative conditioning.
Exposure to the advertisement elicits the expectations that use of the brand will have
a number of positive consequences
Exposure to the advertisement elicits positive affect that will be transferred to the
brand through processes of evaluative conditioning
These effects are stronger in studies that use novel brands, suggesting that the
existence of prior brand attitudes reduces the impact of ad attitudes
Dual mediation hypothesis:
The attitude towards the advertisements influences brand
attitudes through two pathways, namely indirectly via brand cognitions, and directly
via evaluative conditioning.
Katz distinguished four functions of attitudes
- Adjustment function
Maximize rewards, minimize penalties - Value-expressive function
- Ego-defensive function
- Knowledge function
Katz’s theory does not
distinguish clearly between the function of holding a particular
attitude and the function served by the attitude object itself
To avoid this ambiguity, the functional theory of consumer goods focuses exclusively
on the function served by the consumer goods and the goals consumers pursue in
purchasing a particular good
Attitudes serve an important function in
elping us to adapt to our physical and social
environment
two basic processes that enable us to
bring order into our everyday chaos
Categorization and attitude formation
Consumer goals and the functions of consumer goods
Katz’s theory does not distinguish clearly between the function of holding a particular
attitude and the function served by the attitude object itself
To avoid this ambiguity, the functional theory of consumer goods focuses exclusively
on the function served by the consumer goods and the goals consumers pursue in
purchasing a particular good
The relationship between attitudes, goals, and intentions
Goals: Cognitive representations of desired end-states. States that people evaluate
positively and hold positive attitudes towards.
To be adopted as a goal, an end-state does not only have to be desirable, it also has to
be perceived as attainable
There also has to be a positive discrepancy between one’s present state and another
state for that other state to be adopted as a goal
o Improvement over the present state
Once these criteria are met and a goal is adopted, an intention has been formed to
reach that goal at some time in the future
Goals vary in abstractness
o The most abstract goals are values
o There are numerous ways to achieve an abstract goal, but not as many ways to
achieve a concrete goal
Behavioral intention
Implementation intention
People typically pursue multiple goals, only some of which they might be aware of at
any given time
o Focal goals: Goals one actively pursues and of which one is consciously aware.
o Background goals: Goals that might also influence goal pursuit, but that one
might not explicitly be aware of at that time.
Goals:
Cognitive representations of desired end-states. States that people evaluate
positively and hold positive attitudes towards
Focal goals:
Goals one actively pursues and of which one is consciously aware.
Background goals:
Goals that might also influence goal pursuit, but that one
might not explicitly be aware of at that time.
Why people acquire goods
Consumers buy goods in order to achieve some goal
o They try to select certain goods based on the expectation that they will be the
best means to reach that goal
Utilitarian goals
o Utilitarian function: How well a certain object does the job that it is designed
for.
o Performance, reliability, quality
Self-expression goals
o Thinking about the impression ownership of a good would make on other
people
o Communication something about yourself to others
Conspicuous consumption: Some people acquire expensive items not alone for their
use but to display their wealth and to signal their economic status within society.
o Research suggests that it may not be the economic elite that engages most in
conspicuous consumption, but the less powerful sections of society
o Appearing higher in the societal hierarchy than you actually are
o Powerful individuals will feel less of a need to be concerned about what other
people think about them; they can focus on the utilitarian function of goods
Self-monitoring scale: An individual difference measure that allows one to distinguish
people for whom image aspects of a product are particularly important.
o High self-monitors tend to be concerned about the image they project to
others
o Speculated that differences in self-monitoring mediate the effects of power on
purchasing motives
Brands do not only have an image, they also have a “brand personality”, reflecting the
stereotypic image people have of the typical user of that brand
Identity-building goals
o Owning certain goods helps people to be the kind of person they want to be
Hedonic goals
o Pleasure from owning and consuming or using a good
Implications for advertising
Many brands serve multiple goals, most often utilitarian and self-expression
o Advertisers try to emphasize both goals in the same advertisement
